There are many materials identified as desiccants and many known configurations and systems employing desiccants to dry a gas. Systems include those using a solid desiccant and those using a liquid desiccant. In the case of systems based upon liquid desiccants, many existing concepts increase the exposed surface area of desiccant by spraying the desiccant in a mist. Besides the mechanism and energy required for such schemes the resulting chemical mist might, undesirably, be present in the output gas and output water. Solid forms of desiccant avoid these problems but generally do so at the cost of a relatively small exposed surface area per unit of mass leading to inefficiencies. Solid desiccants can also have relatively long regeneration times.
There is a need for a form of desiccant that provides a high ratio of surface area to mass in a convenient to deploy form factor. Also needed are systems employing such a material to dry a gas, preferably using low-grade energy in an efficient manner.